Top 20 players of 2011: karrigan (8)

As we slowly climb towards the top of our list, next up at number 8 is Danish superstar from mousesports, Finn "karrigan" Andersen. The German team recognized the potential in him at the end of 2010 and it paid off for them as he became their best player during 2011 and one of the best AWPers in the world, culminating with his MVP title from ESWC.

Before 2011, Finn "karrigan" Andersen was a member of numerous lineups that attempted to overthrow mTw from the top of Denmark. He and his many different teammates searched for the right formula to make a breakthrough in teams such as wooSai, SoA, Ab Ovo, Cheap Times and p00nhandlers among others. The latter would finally reach that goal, as they managed to defeat mTw in the country's World Cyber Games qualifier in August 2010, playing under the name wCrea. The team later joined the Full-Gaming organization before their trip to Los Angeles, but they ended up disappointing at WCG by failing to pass the group stage.

However, soon after that they proved themselves again by defeating mTw and fnatic to win DSRack #3, while Andersen was one of the best players of that tournament. The team fell apart after that as their in-game leader Timm "ArcadioN" Henriksen was recruited by mTw, while Andersen would embark on a completely different adventure after receiving a call from mousesports. Despite having only few major international tournaments behind him, the young Dane's potential was recognized by the German organization, and he would through 2011 prove that it was the right move for both parties.

Adapting to the new enviroment

Tournament (team result)

Rating

Avg% +/-

IEM5 European Championship Finals (Group stage)

0.83 (3rd)

0%

The new mousesports lineup didn't have much success in their first tournament together at IEM5 European Championship Finals. They only managed to get a draw against eSahara and lose the other four matches, which even deprived them of a spot at the IEM5 World Championship. Andersen's debut was equally unspectacular, as he recorded a poor 0.83 rating, his worst of the year.

Tournament (team result)

Rating

Avg% +/-

Xperia PLAY 2011 (Quarter-final)

1.22 (1st)

+7%

All-Star nomination4th best in pistol-rounds

Three months passed before we saw the German squad at their next LAN tournament, which was Xperia PLAY in Andersen's home country. They didn't show a much improved form, but draws against x6tence and Frag eXecutors in the second group stage secured them a quarter-final encounter with RG-Esports. That would however turn out to be the final stop for them, as the Swedish-Norwegian team outplayed them in three maps.

Andersen was the team's best performer with a 1.22 rating, while he particularly stood out in pistol rounds as one of the best at the event.

In the meantime, mousesports have been keeping up with their dominance in EPS Germany, winning the Summer season and the League Cup, while Andersen was the best rated player of both tournaments.

Soon after that, apparently unsatisfied with their international form, mousesports opted to make lineup changes. The team brought back their famous in-game leader Fatih "gob b" Dayik and also added Michele "zonixx" Köhler, while Manuel "approx" Zeitz was released from the squad and Manuel "Tixo" Makohl moved to being a substitute player.

Tournament (team result)

Rating

Avg% +/-

GameGune 2011 (2nd place)

1.18 (3rd)

+3%

2nd most kills (246)

The changes came too close to the next major tournament, GameGune, so they decided to skip it, but Andersen was allowed to play as a stand-in for ESC Gaming. He helped his temporary team achieve their biggest success of the year by placing second behind SK Gaming, defeating fnatic and Natus Vincere on their way to the final. Andersen was the third best rated in the team with a 1.18 rating, and was more of a stable support player than a star of the team.

1vs3 against Na´Vi at GameGune

Tournament (team result)

Rating

Avg% +/-

e-Stars Seoul 2011 (5-6th place)

1.04 (2nd)

+2%

All-Star nomination3rd best AWPer (0.29 awpKPR)5th most consistent

The first test for the new mousesports lineup was e-Stars Seoul in mid-August, where they finished in a respectable 5-6th place. Andersen was the second best rated in the team with a just above average 1.04 rating, but was voted man-of-the-match in all three of their victories, over WinFakt, UMX and TyLoo. Also notable is that in the previous lineup of mousesports, he didn't use the AWP much, but in his first tournament after the change he was one of the best AWPers of the event with a very good 0.29 awpKPR. His performance overall earned him his second All-Star nomination, after the one at Xperia PLAY.

At the beginning of October they traveled to Asia once again, to take part in IEM6 Global Challenge Guangzhou. Here they achieved second place, which was their highest placement of the year, although they didn't have to go through a lot of trouble for that, only overcoming eFuture in the semi-final before losing to fnatic in the final.

Andersen was one of the main stars of the event, with the second best rating of 1.25 and as the second most consistent performer. He was also the second best AWPer with 0.32 awp kills per round, which overall earned him an MVP nomination. He wasn't chosen for that award eventually, but he did for the first time make it into the All-Star lineup of a tournament.

The tournament in China turned out to be a good preparation for their next challenge, as a few weeks later mousesports achieved their biggest success by placing third at a very competitive tournament, ESWC. After topping their group and knocking out fnatic at that stage, they met with Lions in the quarter-final and easily disposed of them. However, SK Gaming was too strong for them in the semi-final, although the match did end with a close 3rd map, while after that they overcame AGAiN in the 3rd place decider.

Andersen had the best performance of his career at this tournament, ending up as the best rated of all players with an incredible 1.38 rating and claiming the MVP title. He also established himself as one of the best AWPers in the world, getting 125 kills with the big green (the most anyone had at any major tournament in 2011) and having one of the best averages of 0.39 awp kills per round. Additionally, he was the most dominant player and the one who carried his team the most with rating 27% above their average, which would explain why despite playing for the third placed team, he was named the MVP.

karrigan's highlight round during group stage match vs fnatic

two AWP rounds vs Lions in ESWC quarter-final

Another two highlight rounds from the Lions match at ESWC

Tournament (team result)

Rating

Avg% +/-

DreamHack Winter 2011 (4th place)

1.13 (1st)

+13%

All-Star nomination3rd best AWPer (0.33 awpKPR)4th best entry killer

Mousesports' last major event of the year was DreamHack Winter where they almost repeated their success from France, but ended up 4th due to a loss to Natus Vincere in the last match. Andersen was once again the team's best player, having a 1.13 rating and doing great with the AWP as 3rd best of the event (0.33 awpKPR). He was later nominated for the All-Star lineup of the event and he barely missed out on it, coming 6th in the vote.

Amazing AK47 one-shots against Lions at DH Winter

In December, mousesports added yet another EPS Germany title to their trophy room, while Andersen was by far the best player of the season with a 1.53 rating.

From rising star to superstar

Bringing in Finn "karrigan" Andersen turned out to be one of the best moves in the history of mousesports organization, as he quickly became the star of the team, and as the year progressed he established himself as one of the world's best players.

In the first part of the year mousesports weren't very successful and Andersen didn't have much opportunity to excel. But since their lineup change they started getting noticeable placements at major events, such as 5-6th at e-Stars, 2nd at IEM6 GC Guangzhou and 3rd at ESWC and Andersen was right in the middle of the action, an important member in each of those campaigns.

Also, since the lineup change, Andersen was given the job of being a full-time AWPer in the team, which he took full advantage of and showed that he is one of the best in the world with that weapon. Even though he didn't use the big green in the first half of the year, he still ended up having 5th most kills with it at major tournaments (367) and the 6th best average of 0.23 awp kills per round.

His MVP performance at ESWC was one of the most impressive by any player in 2011, while he was also selected for the All-Star team at IEM6 GC Guangzhou. In addition to that, he had a few more All-Star nominations at major tournaments - at Xperia PLAY, e-Stars and DreamHack Winter. Also worth noting is that he never had a tournament-rating below team's average, which demonstrates his importance for mousesports.

All that makes him a worthy candidate for the 8th spot, which could have been even higher if he'd been in the same form in the first half of the year as in the second, and also if he had any major titles to his name.

Interestingly, he was the best player with the Glock, getting 62 kills with it, so make sure to keep your eye on him in mousesports' Terrorist-side pistol-rounds in the future.

At the end of 2011, mousesports announced a lineup change for their 2012 season, which saw Andersen team up with a fellow Dane, former mTw member Danny "zonic" Sørensen, while Vinh "ninja" Bui Thanh left the team.

Finn "karrigan" Andersen became one of the most respected AWPers in the world during the last few tournaments of 2011, but can we expect him to continue in the same manner in 2012? And will the new mousesports lineup be able to surpass their 2011 success and perhaps win a major event? Share with us what you think about that and about Andersen's 8th place on our Top 20.

If you want to check out the entire ranking, go to our Introduction article as it will be updated daily until we complete the list. Stay tuned to HLTV.org as tomorrow we will bring you our number 7.

"All that makes him a worthy candidate for the 8th spot, which could have been even higher if he'd been in the same form in the first half of the year as in the second, and also if he had any major titles to his name."

for a team that didnt achieve anything internationally... im not saying karrigan is bad or something, he is a great player and he would be in my "team" of 2011, if i ever made one, but acording to stats, throphys, personal achieves, an 8th place is great for him.
team of 2011 though: KARRIGAN, Delpan, neo, get_right and markeloff! imo these were the best players, individually

it really sucks for denmark to have their 3 greatest players spread out in sweden and germany to be honest, cause a team like this: friis, zonic, trace, karrigan and arcadion could really do something :/ anyway, yeah i agree with what u said

The German team recognized the potential in him at the end of 2010 and it paid off for them as he became their best player during 2011 and one of the best AWPers in the world, culminating with his MVP title from ESWC.

Wow. I'm surprised he wasn't placed higher, now it's really interesting who's gonna get the remaining spots.
I think this year was the year where Karrigan proved that he can be recognized among the best players out there. I mean, his AWP is on a top level and his rifling is decent. I think he's the reason why mousesports has been in decent positions at the tournaments they played. He's a top 3 AWPer in the world there's no doubt about that and when he's on top, he's incredible.
I was very sad tho' when he didn't join mTw because I think he's a more complete fighter than Friis and a better AWPer so I think that if he joined mTw then mTw would be a top 3 team in the world for sure. I think he could be the player that mTw was looking for when Sunde left.
It's too bad mousesports didn't play more tournaments this year because it would be more action at the tournaments because after this year and after the way Karrigan played, I can see mousesports becoming a top 3 team and a serious opponent for the big titles.
Congrats to Karrigan this spot was well deserved altho' I think he should be placed higher but it's the lack of participation in tournaments that ranked him on a less worthy position in my opinion. It will be very interesting to see who the remaining players are because I thought Karrigan would be in the top 5 for sure. Watch out 2012, Karrigan is coming!

nope, because they're not just basing it off kpr or something like that, i.e. a straight number. the fact that they're weighing different statistics and summing them means their choice of how to do that is a form of bias. ask any real statistician, and they'll tell you that is correct.
Beyond that, they're even weighing in number of lans played and such, which biases in many other ways, such as towards a team that is dominant in their country (since many lans use national qualifiers, so they're more likely to make a lan than a team from a country with a lot of dominant teams), and others like that. If you don't believe they're doing that, just look at kalle's blurb: "The only Norwegian in our list was actually statistically the most dominant player, showing that he has the potential to become one of the world's elite, but due to so few appearances he was placed at the 11th spot." So, in their own words, if the straight stats were how they chose the numbers, kalle would be #1.

I hate those 2 overrated fucking clips vs lions at DHW. sure they are awesome, but they gave the match away so they could get to the easier side of the playoff bracket. and basically, he just went in to that match trying to get himself highlights, because he knew they would lose anyways.

This is real statistic and deserved 8. place ..
And why people writing top3 ?
He can't be top3 , he played well second half of 2011 year ... what then for players who played better then him all year ..
Stop talking nonsense ..
MAYBE he deserved 7. or 6. but that's all ..

not sure why everyone is saying trace should be in the top 20? he only played half the year and didn't really standout much.
Besides, he's extremely overrated, he literally baits his whole team every single round lol..

not sure if trolling, but trace is probably the best aimer ever to play cs, and I suggest you go watch some demoes if you believe he baits his team. Running up mid on tuscan as the first doing 3 headshots in 2 seconds is not really baiting you know, and trace is imo the only player able to do that.

dont talk trash, like "top sucks hard" if you have straight facts before your face, couse its annoying ;c
he done so good last events (second half), first half was near nowhere top20 since they failed tournaments, and dont attend many of them

oh my god is evsry kid in the cs community these days delusional! people saying karrigan top 5 yoou just see his highlits you don't follow every fkn game he plays! friss played well in every tournament helloed in all through the year so he will be rated higher then him because karrigan was hopeless In the 1st part of the year!

Sorry but what you are doing should not be messured neither with stats nor tournament accomplishments.
One is for sure, at 2011 Karrigan is not at the eighth position of the best players and delpan not in the 9th.
Way to fail Hltv.

What should be done then? Skillwise?
Nothing close to this was done before, HLTV.org created something that was missing in all the CS golden years, a complete ranking system, based on the real stats. Sadly it's being done so late. Would be great to see Spawn or walle's stats in the past, for example.

It's Great that we have the stats system don't get me wrong. But how good a player is and how other players are better than others is not calculated only by stats, but as skills. For example Taz may not be the best aimer or complete 25 frags per map, but he is the reason his team is the best right now. He is the best tactical leader and no one does the work he does. From that being said, this also doesn't mean that he is the best because he has that quality. What Hltv should have done is compare each player by their quality as an individual then who shoots the mostly, and then make their decison.
You get what I mean ?

BAH, Delpan top9 is bad for me.
Karrigan would be in top5 because in 2011 he starts to play with mouz and mouz were fold for 6month more or less, is very hard to play with a new lineup, with enw player and LEARN A NEW LEANGUAGE, he doing it perfect and now guys, watch 2012 Mouz, they can do really damage.
btw it's good to see him in top8, but delpan in top9 NO OF COURSE, if SK lose a tournament it's only for his mistakes and you can see how tournament they lose.

he should be in top5 at least imo. he didnt win many titles and this stuff but what does this matter, its about best player...cant best player be someone who hasnt won any title? i dont really see whats the point judging a player by titles, thats more like judging a team

all these rankings are based on player stats only (stats are from big tournaments).
if you want your dream top20 list, this isn't right place for it to discuss. There are many forum threads where you can discuss with others about dream top20.

lol im just saying he is top5 of 2011 (its really my opinion but for me its a fact too, ofc i know these rankings are only based on stats (thats why they arent that accurate) but hey, better some ranking than none)

I like Neo, but Markeloff will be first I think. He was in top all events, he was in Dream Team all events, he has the best qualities in statistics every event(maybe not same qualities, but..). I think he is amazing carry of the team. Even with such great fraggers like starix and Edward, Markeloff is 50% of Na`Vi in 2011. And don't forget that he is top1 awp 2010-2011. It is pretty amazing too. Never saw so dominant and consistent player. F*ck, markeloff is the most consistent player ever in my opinion really. I just watch'd his demo vs Sk (dust2/train) 3x times and I want it more *lol*
So my opinion:
1.markeloff
2.neo
3.get_right
that will be fair. I hope Neo will be much better next year, cuz he deserves more.

actually it all depends on statistics and that can be calculated only by hltv.org crew. I'm also very intersted who had better rating although it seems to me that get_right again will have the best anyway

Despite Friis's consistency he played for team who achieved lot more. That is only one more reason. I don't think that Karrigan was that good this year, but without doubt he showed the best performance in one tournament alongside Neo (IEM5 WC) during 2011.

well I expected karrigan to be higher but its cool. the last 3-4 months he has probably been top3 if not top1, but he did indeed not do that amazing earlier but mouz was really struggling overall.
karrigan to dominate 2012.